Game On: AdU vs. DLSU, Round 2

There are number of games Adamson shouldn’t have lost in round one and their “unsportsmanlike” game to the Green Archers was surely one of them.

The call that stole the show from La Salle’s early game brilliance and Adamson’s late game rally (Photo Credit: DZMM ABS-CBN News)

Sure they allowed themselves to get buried in the first three quarters; and La Salle deserved every inch of that victory that they gained, but it could have been written very differently had a few things had been different. Whatever they could have changed, it’s water under the bridge now, people have been suspended, apologies were made and all they can really do about it is make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Keys to the game

1. Less Perks

In their round 1 meeting, Jason Perkins finished with a double-double 13 points and 13 rebounds. He was trouble for the Falcons and may continue to be trouble for them. His high shooting percentage means that La Salle can swing the ball to him for easy points while everyone else is struggling. His good shot selection saw him make 5 of 8 shots from the field, something AdU has to take notice of and prevent this game.

He also grabbed 13 rebounds in the game, which was pretty annoying. Since Perkins is listed as a forward and his game pretty is one, he’s taller and bulkier than most opponents in his position, but he’s a lot faster and more agile than the centers. This spelled trouble for Sewa and Brondial who had a hard time finding Perkins on the floor for the box out. With his shooting and size, Perkins can also draw the Falcons big men away from the middle of the paint which opens things up for the rest of the Archers.

Rendering Perkins less effective takes away a big chunk of what La Salle did to bury Adamson in that double-digit hole in round one.

2. Keep the bigs out of it

Shooting-wise, it was the bigs of La Salle that really did it in for Adamson. Perkins, Norbert Torres, and Arnold Van Opstal all made swiss cheese out of the Falcons defense. But the bright spot was that their guards just couldn’t get their shooting flow right.

Player

True Shooting %

Points

Norbert Torres

60.9%

13

Jason Perkins

76.6%

13

Jeron Teng

43%

12

Almond Vosotros

33.9%

11

Arnold Van Opstal

80.8%

10

L.A. Revilla

60.6%

6

Thomas Torres

37.5%

3

Luigi Dela Paz

20%

2

Letting Teng and the other guards work for their points is still a good idea given how poorly they shot from the floor in their last game (Photo Credit: Josh Abelda, UAAP Sports TV)

Despite getting into double figures in scoring, both Jeron Teng and Almond Vosotros hurt their team’s shooting, though Teng made up for it by hitting his freebies. Allowing their guards which include Thomas Torres and Luigi Dela Paz with the exception of Revilla to go nuts on shooting will help Adamson get more defensive stops. As long as they can keep the ball away from the bigs who bailed La Salle out in their previous game, Adamson can easily make La Salle struggle to score points.

3. No more charity

Adamson’s core principle as a university is charity, but against La Salle, they can’t afford to be as giving as they are to their adopted communities. While Adamson isn’t a strong freethrow shooting team, neither is La Salle, but if you send a team to the line 22 times on a game they’re shooting 37.5% on the floor, you’re doing them a huge favor.

In their last game, both teams ended with roughly the same amount of field goal attempts, 64 for La Salle and 62 for Adamson. Since Adamson shot 43.5% from the field while La Salle only made 37.5% of their attempts, Adamson easily had the upper hand, right? Wrong! What La Salle lacked in field goals they happily made up at the charity stripe. Time and time again Adamson sent an Archer to hit freebies, which unfortunately for the Falcons, the Archers actually made (18 of 22). The Falcons on the other hand only saw the stripe 15 times and missed on five of their chances. Clearly, if this figure keeps up, Adamson is better off avoiding the line altogether.

Key Matchup

Sewa vs. Perkins

The success and failure of their teams lay squarely on their broad and able shoulders in this game. Thanks to the two-week break, it can be presumed that Ingrid Sewa’s bum shoulder is now more or less at 100%, this means he’ll be able to get back into the thick of things and start banging with people in the paint. Possibly the only reason Perkins got as many rebounds as he did in their last game was because Sewa played too tentatively, attempting only 2 field goals while grabbing only 8 boards. Should we see Sewa back in monster form again, Perkins’ 13-13 contribution in their last game will be a thing of the past.

Prediction

It’s a revenge game, it’s a correction game, the Falcons aren’t going slip twice on the same banana peel. If there’s any time to show how big a contender they are this season, now is the right time to start doing it.